Grading machine



GRADING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 16, 1935 Sept. 1, 1936. J, w. JOHNSTQN I 2,052,830 7 GRADING MACHINE Filed April 16, 1955 s Sheets-Sheet 2 Sept. 1, 1936. J, w JOHNSTON 2,052,830

.GRADING MACHINE Filed April 16, 1955 s Sheets-Sheet 5 l r x/r cma- Patented Sept. 1, 1936 UNHTED STATES PATENT OFFICE GRADING MACHINE This invention James W. Johnston,

to North American Syracuse, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application April 16,

4 Claims. relates to grading machines of the kind which grade died-out pieces of leather such as cut sol cordance with t es, taps and other blanks in acheir thickness as determined by a detecting or measuring device.

The principal object of the invention is to provide means to prevent a blank from swerving or being displaced edgewise from a straight path while it is being acted upon by the detecting or measuring device.

Although the tion I will describe it, tration, as applied to a invention is of broader applicafor the purpose of illusgrading machine of the type shown in the Cogswell Patents No. 1,686,487,

dated October 2, 1928, and No. 1,820,010, dated August 25, 1931.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. l is a top plan View, partly in section and partly broken away, of

a grading machine embodying the invention,"

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal central section on the line 2-2 of Fig.

Bis an enlarged detail, partly in section and partly in elevation, illustrating one of the tractic-n wheels her einafter described; and

Fig. 4 is an elevation partly in section on line 44 of Fig. 2.

At the front of the machine is a magazine or hopper which holds the soles or other blanks S to be graded i The the usual feeding n a stack resting on a table or blanks are automatically fed by mechanism one at a time from the stack to the detecting and and I6, by which the blanks are propelled through the machine. and feeding rolls l5 and I 6 are continuously driven in the directions indicated by the arrows in Fig. 2. As each blank between the rolls thinnest part is the lower yielding mechanism to set passes I 5 and IS the thickness of its detected and determined and roll l6 acts through the usual the pointer l1 relatively to the dial l8 of the usual indicator.

The blank is discharged from the rolls l5 and I6 upon the work-supporting bed l9 where it remains until it is underneath the the rolls l5 and For a more removed by the operator from trip l4. Thereupon the trip l4 l9 and sets in motion the which another blank is the stack of blanks S to I6.

detailed description of the construction and operation of the machine, which has been generally outlined above, reference may be had to eith er of the two patents aforesaid.

1935, Serial No. 16,573 (01. 27151) Machines of this character are well known in the art and contain many parts which are not material to the present invention and which it is therefore not necessary to describe in explaining the present invention.

Each roll [-5 and it: comprises as usual two roll sections which are adjustably mounted, respectively, on shafts H and I2. The two sections of each roll are separated at the middle by an intervening space so that only ginal portions of the blanks are engaged by the rolls, since it is the usual practice to grade soles and the like according to the thickness of the thinnest measurement of the marginal areas, especially the marginal areas of the forepart of the sole. It is therefore important that the blank pass through the machine with the median line of its forepart parallel to its direction of movement and approximately midway between the two sections of each roll. In the machines as heretofore constructed there is nothing to prevent the blanks, after leaving the magazine and while being propelled through the machine by the feeding and detecting rolls l5 and I6, from swerving edgewise, with the result that the median line of the blank sometimes swings laterally in one direction or the other instead of maintaining a straight path always parallel to the direction of movement of the blanks. Consequently it sometimes happens that the desired marginal areas of the blank are not correctly traversed by the roll sections and imperfect grading results. Such swerving movements may be occasioned by the action of the rolls i 5 and I6 themselves, especially when the blank is not of uniform thickness from side to side, or they may be occasioned by the action of the usual feed slide by which the blanks are pushed out of the magazine.

To prevent this swerving or lateral edgewise displacement of the blank as it passes between the rolls I5 and I6 I have provided means associated with said rolls to exert positive and equal traction on both lateral margins of the blank thereby toinsure the travel of the blank in a straight path without swerving as it is fed between the rolls. Preferably such means consists of a pair of spaced circumferential rows of prongs 20 which project beyond the surface of the rolls and which embed themselves sufficiently in the surface of the blank to exert positive and equal traction on both lateral margins of the blank and prevent the blank from swerving. As herein shown each circumferential row of prongs is formed on the periphery of a traction wheel the side mar- 2 which is of ring-like form preferably composed of a plurality of removable sections. Two such sections 2! and 22, Fig. 3, are herein illustrated, but the wheel might consist of a different number of sections. Each section of the traction wheel is removably fastened to the inner end of its roll section by means of a screw 23 passing through a hole in the wheel or ring section and into a threaded bore in the end of the roll section.

As herein shown the pronged traction wheels are attached to the inner ends of the two sections of the lower roll I6. arrangement when leather blanks are to be passed through the machine with the flesh side or unfinished side finished side up. Sometimes the blanks are passed through the machine with the finished side down and the unfinished side up. In that event the traction wheels may be secured to the inner ends of the two sections of the upper roll l5 by means of screws entering holes 2G (Fig. 2) provided for that purpose in the upper roll sections. In this way the defacing or marking of the finished side of the blanks by the prongs 20 may be avoided. Topermit such interchangeability of the traction wheels between the upper and lower feed rolls l5 and i5, said rolls should be of the same diameter so that the prongs 20 will project the desired predetermined distance beyond the periphery or surface of the roll sections of the two rolls should be in register and should be identical in length so that no matter to which of the rolls the traction wheels are attached the intervening space between the roll sections of the opposite roll provides a circumferential recess opposite the projecting prongs of the traction wheels. The two shafts H and I2 are also preferably made of the same diameter 50 that the inner periphery of each ring or wheel section will fit against the shafts whether the traction wheels are applied to the upper or the lower roll.

This is the preferred ing' with the corresponding recess down and the grain side or panion roll, and a and the intervening spaces between the I claim:

1. In a grading machine, a pair of measuring rolls each having two sections separated by an intervening circumferential recess registering with the corresponding recess in the companion roll, and a traction wheel secured at the inner end of each section of one of said rolls, each traction wheel having peripheral prongs projecting beyond the surface of the roll to which it is secured and into the intervening recess in the other roll.

' 2. In a grading machine, a pair of measuring rolls consisting of a driving roll and a driven roll, each roll having two sections separated by an intervening circumferential recess registerin the comtraction wheel secured to the inner end of each section of said driven roll, each traction wheel' having peripheral prongs projecting beyond the surface of the driven roll and into the circumferential recess in the driving roll. 1 3. In a grading machine, a pair of measuring rolls each having two sections separated by an intervening circumferential recess registering with the corresponding recess in the companion roll, and ,a traction wheel secured at the inner end of each section of one of said rolls,-each traction wheel having peripheral prongs projecting beyond the surface-of the roll to which it is secured and into the intervening recessrin the other roll, and each traction wheel being made in a plurality of arcuate sections individually fastened to the end of the roll section.

4. In a grading machine, a pair of cooperating measuring rolls, one of said rolls having two sections separated by an intervening recess, and a pair of traction wheels secured to the other of said rolls intermediate its ends, said traction wheelshaving peripheral prongs projecting beyond the surface of the roll to which they are secured and into the intervening recess in the first mentioned roll.

JAMES WI JOHNSTON. 

